In German Auslegeschrift No. 21 41 472, which is in the name of Gebruder Schmeing, there is disclosed a shuttle and a process for the manufacture thereof. This known shuttle comprises a thermoplastics body portion, lateral travel faces of the body portion being covered in a known manner with a thermosetting material. The manufacture of such a shuttle includes the provision of a fabric web between the thermoplastics portion and the thermosetting material, the layers being held together by adhesive between the fabric web and the thermosetting material.
The development of this known shuttle arose from the need to make possible for high-speed weaving looms the utilisation of a shuttle having a body portion made from a thermoplastics material reinforced in a known manner by means of a thermosetting material.
To achieve such an arrangement, a starting consideration is that an essential portion of the shuttle is formed by a basic body which is made from a thermoplastics material and is already preformed. To provide abrasion resistance and some degree of heat protection, the thermosetting material is applied to outer sides of this basic body. However the application and secure connection of the thermosetting material to the thermoplastics material give rise to some difficulties. According to the proposal of German Auslegeschrift No. 21 41 472, these difficulties are obviated in that the shuttle's basic body portion of thermoplastics material is, subsequent to being manufactured as a separate entity, fused to form a liquid plastics mass into which is inserted a fabric web intended together with the adhesive to act as a connection between the thermoplastics and the thermosetting portions.
However it has been found in practice that the process disclosed in German Auslegeschrift No. 21 41 472 does not produce a shuttle which operates to the satisfaction of persons skilled in the art, since the connection between the thermoplastics material and the thermosetting material could not be adequately secured.